Superset for Time

It's the night before Thanksgiving and I just finished my workout. I'm currently doing a 3-day per week split. Monday is lower body, Wednesday is upper body, and Friday is a 10-Minute Fitness Fury full-body workout.

As we get deeper into the holiday season, I will probably do more 10-Minute workouts due to time constraints.

If you haven't tried this type of short, intense workout, you should give it a try. It's a great way to shake up your current routine and challenge your body.

Here's a 10-Minute full body workout using just dumbbells and a stability ball:

Ball squats with OH Press superset Crunches on the Stability Ball, 2 sets, 10-12 reps each
Bent Over DB Rows superset DB Chest Presses on the Stability Ball, 2 sets, 10-12 reps each
DB Clean & Press superset Stability Ball Roll-Ins, 2 sets, 10-12 reps each
20 rep Ball Squat, 1 set, 20 reps
(A superset is 2 exercises performed back to back with no rest in between.)

That's it. Start with some muscle specific warm-up moves and end with a cool-down.
Use weights that challenge your muscles so that you can just eek out the recommended number of reps.

The supersetting technique allows you to move quickly through your workout and still keep the intensity up.

Give it a try. What do you have to lose?

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Carpe Diem!
Bobbi

Blessings

Having just finished my Thanksgiving newsletter, I started thinking more about my own life and what I am thankful for.

I have a lot for which I am very grateful.

-My wonderful, sweet, loving girlfriend.
-My mom and sister - they don't live too far and we all have a good time together.
-Two cute, loveable dogs and a cat.
-That all the above are healthy.
-To be in a career field that I really enjoy. I have so much fun doing boot camps! : )
-To always know I have options for my life. My life experiences aren't limited by anything but my own imagination.
-Awesome boot campers that work out hard and can party hard too! (As evidenced by all the drinks on the table in our pictures from El Toro... : )

This is by no means an exhaustive list. I could easily keep going for pages. These are just the ones that popped into my head first.

I hope y'all comment and share what you are thankful for in your life.

Have a great Thanksgiving!
Carpe Diem!
Bobbi

Ouch!!

So today, standing and walking were pretty difficult tasks.

I irritated my lower back a little while ago. Not bad enough to pay much attention to it, just enough for it to be a little inconvenient. I've continued all my regular activities, including working out. So I did a heavy lift day this past Tuesday, and I don't know if that's what did it, but today, I could barely get out of bed. I moved from inconvenient to downright painful.

Something is really out of whack in my back. Ouch! It has gotten better throughout the day and I'm sure will feel even better tomorrow.

I know it needs time to heal, but I don't want to miss a bunch of workouts. So what I do sometimes is body weight only workouts. These are fun to throw into your routine every once in awhile to break things up and do something different.

Here's an example of one that I do sometimes:
(After a 3-5 minute warm-up...)
Move from 1 exercise to the next with no rest...
--12-15 Push-Ups with 3 count holds at the bottom of the movement
--20-25 Ball Squats with 5 count holds at the bottom of the movement
--8-10 Pull-Ups with 3 count holds at the top
--15 Single-leg Leg Curls on the stability ball
--3-point Crunches on the stability ball
--20 Walking Lunges each leg
Repeat 2-3 times...

Adding holds to the exercises increases the intensity so that body weight exercises become pretty difficult!

If you need something new to break up your usual routine, give this workout a try.

Carpe Diem!

The Sky's the Limit!!!!

My girlfriend's birthday was this past Sunday.  We did some shopping, went to dinner, had some pink champagne, and I even made her favorite cake...German chocolate.  For those of you who know me at all, you know I don't cook...or bake...or make toast for that matter.  Not my thing.  I will set off the smoke alarm more often than not.  : )

But she said the cake was good so I was very pleased with myself!

For her gift, I got us two tickets for a hot air balloon ride.  She had told me that was something she always wanted to do.  The funny thing...she is scared of heights.

That is something about her that I really admire.  She doesn't hesitate to do what she needs (or wants!) because of fear or discomfort.  Can you imagine how much your world would open up if you learn to disregard fear?  And I'm not just talking about phobias or the fear of physical danger.  But everyday fears that we all face...fear of failure, fear of loss, fear of what others think, fear of success, fear of uncertainty, fear of the unknown...

What would you do if you weren't afraid?

Back to my present to my girlfriend.  The week before her birthday, I gave her at least one clue per day.  But I stumped her!!!  She didn't guess it until the night before when we played charades.  : )

If you want to see one of the clues I gave her, check out this webpage. 
OK, so it was a little obscure...but I didn't really want her to guess too early!!!  : )

Carpe Diem!!

Chunk It Up

My ebook The 10-Minute Fitness Fury Program is finally available! I'm so glad to have it out there. My girlfriend and I celebrated Friday night with some champagne.

Now I will turn my focus to other projects so today I need to sit down and do some planning and brainstorming. But it's hard for me to just sit and plan. I prefer to be doing, not just thinking. But it is a vital part of the process so what I have figured out that works for me is to break stuff like that down into little chunks.

I got the idea from an ezine that I subscribe to. In it, the author recommended dedicating at least 15 minutes a day to a project you are working on, but struggling with. Just 15 minutes. Over time, all those little chunks of work add up and before you know it, your 1/2 way done with the project.

I have a difficult time focusing for long periods sometimes, so I break it down even further and just plan on 10 minute chunks. Even when I don't feel like working on something, I can remind myself it's only 10 minutes...I can do it for just 10 minutes.

I use this strategy for a variety of things...meditation, brainstorming sessions, writing, and of course, workouts. I find that it helps me get things done more. A 10 minute writing session seems much more doable than forcing myself to get an hour's worth of material down.

What strategies do y'all use to be more productive? If you have any that work well for you, let me know, I'm always looking for good ideas! : )

Basic Training

As I talk to women about their current workouts and why they aren't getting results, I find several common themes almost every time.  So if you're interested in making the most of your time in the gym, and getting results, check out these 3 common mistakes:

1) Working out too long and too much.  Overtraining is more common than you might think.  I mean it sounds counterintuitive...how can you exercise too much???  It's really not that hard.  The body has it's limits.  It needs downtime to recover, repair and make itself stronger for the next go round.  If you don't give it the time it needs, it will rebel on you and along with holding back in the results department, it may also punish you with fatigue, lack of motivation, and irritabilit...just to name a few possibilities.

2) Not working out hard enough.  Sounds contradictory to number 1, doesn't it?  It's not.  You need to learn to train harder and smarter, not longer and more.  Intensity and quality are key to getting results from your program, not volume and quantity.  Make sure you fatigue your muscles when you strength train, and you just aren't throwing dumbbells around.  Do interval cardio training to really tax your system and cause a metabolic disturbance.  Work harder for shorter periods of time.

3) Making the workouts to complicated.  You don't need fancy equipment to get in a good workout. In fact, a lot of the time it can be more of a distraction than anything else.  My girlfriend got me a membership to her gym so we can workout together (or rather, I can help her workout : ), but what I usually do is workout at home, then go to the gym to help her.  Sometimes I do my workout at the gym, but not usually.  At home, I have a set of adjustable dumbbells, a bench, a rack, and a barbell with some free weights.  That's all I need.  Keep it simple.  If you want results, stick to the basics: full body workouts using compound exercises with a few intensity techniques thrown in.  That's it.  Piece of cake, right?  Actually, if you want results, I would skip the cake...   : )

Carpe Diem!

The Cookie Diet....Really???

I just recently heard about this diet although it has supposedly been around since 1975. Dr. Sanford Siegal is the brainchild behind this new trend...The Cookie Diet.

Of course, these aren't real cookies...at least not in my book! These are 'health bars' shaped as cookies. But, to be honest, I don't think they are really that healthy either.

And the overall plan is a little crazy - you are to eat 6 of these cookies per day and then 1 regular meal at night. Not only is that unhealthy because you are seriously limiting your intake of healthy fruits, vegetables and other natural foods, but that's not even remotely appetizing...YUCK! Six meal/snacks being exactly the same everyday...not my idea of a culinary fiesta.

Anyway, I could go on about this cookie diet, or I could just let you check out the blog where I found out about the infamous cookie diet. My colleague from Dallas, Scott Colby, has discussed it in a couple of his blog posts, complete with videos.

Go here to see what he has to say about it, then let me know what you think of the diet, and Scott's statements.

Portable Workout Blooper

In order to provide my clients with numerous options they can use to get a good workout, I created a full-body workout using the Lebert Equalizer and made a video. You can check out the workout video at the FitCamps4Chicks social page.

The Lebert Equalizer is basically a couple of hurdle-looking bars. Not very sophisticated, but incredibly versatile, and a great way to add some variety and fun to your workouts. They are also fairly light and portable.

Anyway, I created this video in my backyard and it turned out OK. But it took me numerous shots to get it right (I'm new to this whole video thing). Since it was a nice day, I had my two dogs outside with me so they could enjoy the weather and get some exercise. I didn't really think that one through very well...dogs are not so conscious as to whether they are getting in the way of the camera...

For a little entertainment, I decided to post one of the blooper videos...check it out below!
Carpe Diem!

PS - If you want more information about the Lebert Equalizer, go to their website.

Witches & Devils....BOO!

I don't have much time...getting ready to eat some dinner. But I wanted to post the Halloween pics of our dogs. My girlfriend (no, I wouldn't dress my dog up myself, but she wanted to, and...well, what can I say...) and I picked out costumes for them and set up mini photo shoots.

Here are the results.

(Joie is the terrier mix and Sibley the poodle.)